Medications, try try again

Looking further into Medications to Quit

I have said a lot about medications in the past, but on this blog I would like to focus on what you have learned in past quit attempts about different medications. What have you learned that can help you now as you choose medications that can help.
I often hear people say " I have tried that and it didn't work for me" and it makes me wonder what happened that made it not work. Sometimes it is because it is the wrong medication for that person, like if a person has really sensitive skin maybe the Nicotine Replacement Therapy, The Nicotine Patch, isn't going to work. But with some reflection you might find that a medication that you tried at another time will work now.
For this reason I would like to encourage you to look a bit more deeply at what medications you have tried and what worked about it and what didn't. If you can understand what did work it will lead you to several possible next steps. It is possible to change the way you use the medications to make it work, supplement it by adding other medications to the main one, or perhaps getting better support will make the difference in success. Sometimes a change in behavior is what will make things work for you.
On further reflection has a medication worked most of the time but during extreme cravings didn't cut it? Maybe it will work better if you sometimes supplement it with another medication. An example is using the Nicotine Patch or Nicotine gum and when cravings hit hard also use a dose of nicotine inhaler or a nicotine nasal spray. Both of these medications send nicotine to the brain quickly. I have found that sometimes people who have tried Chantix didn't make a firm quit date and haven't spent any time thinking about how to address the social and emotional needs that tobacco meets. If you never really quit while taking Chantix, but continued to use the tobacco for emotional reasons then a firm quit date and using other methods of handling stress will bring success within your reach. Did you relapse when you were at a bar at your last quit attempt? Maybe changes in behavior is what is necessary and the medication can be tried again. Staying away from bars and alcohol is what helped my son quit. He found it difficult to be in bars without smoking because physically his brain made associations between drinking and alcohol so when he was at a bar his brain made the connection and craved a smoke. He also was used to smoking there and so even his personal habits and rituals made him reach into his pocket for a cigarette. He kept away from bars for a few months before he felt ready to go back to drinking without smoking.
Sometimes people will have reactions to a medication that when managed differently will work for them. An example of this is the NRT, The Nicotine Patch which sometimes gives people intense dreams, even nightmares. If the patch is taken off during the night and another applied the next day it might allow them to continue to use The Patch and they can sleep uninterrupted.
I am going to suggest journaling again as a way to sort out what medication to try. Don't automatically disregard something that you have tried in the past, which didn't work, but instead look a bit deeper to see why it didn't work and if it might possibly work with some adjustments on your part. Talk to your health care provider, they will also have insights to what might work best for you. I send you my best wishes and thoughts on all of your efforts to quit, I know that you can be a Successful Quitter.